The Wichita Beacon from Wichita, Kansas • 8

toeeieh jlJL fmrra' Vines 7 Art-No 56 The Wichita Beacon Hope Remains For Negro EDITORIAL PAGE In America Pace 8A Saturday August 21 1965 Summing 1J the Wrrk In Palmer's Footsteps Edltori In 1619 a group of Duti-ip colonists landed in Jamestown wills a human cargo of Negro slaves whir had been kidnaped and taken from their native land to be sold like animals to the highest bidder Today 346 years later the Negro in America through relatively recent Congressional action has gained a great deal of long over-due freedom although Abraham Lincoln nlgnod the "Emancipation Proclamation" over 100 years sgo I When the founder and guiding light of an organization dies it ia inevitably a blow to that organization But the blow can be lewcned if the leader has thought about the future charted a longterm couraa for his organization and prepared for an orderly transition It became evident this week that Martin Palmer founder and director of the Institute of Logopedics who died Aug 13 had devoted such thought and preparation to the future of the Institute The Board of Trustees vealed that Dr Palmer had planned to retire from active administration this fall to devote more time to research clinical work and teaching In getting ready for this he had outlined what he thought should be the course far into the future "a plan for another 30 years of the trustees called it WHY HAS IT taken so long for the American nation to recognise the fart that Negroes are human beings? If wa can answer this question then perhaps wo can find an answer to tha cause of tho recent race riots in Los Angeles The Negro people as a whole are not a violent people for what other race on the face of the earth would permit Itself to be used and abused by eo-cilled "superior" races century after century without rising up in protest? The law of the land now stales that Negroes are entitled to equal rights This is as it should be but even this in itself is not enough Many white people think that the thwarted desires of the Negroes are now being "crammed" down their throats and as a result a feeling oj rejection a feeling of beinJ wanted" has arisen in the hearts of the Negro race Whether we realize it or not this is a terrible thing Men can be poor and still possess a happy frame of mind but tne awful feeling of being wanted" is tha most dreadful thing in the world How many of us have had to enduro (his year alter year? Dr Palmer also had chosen the man he believed should carry on the administrative duties Acting on his recommendation the trustees this week appointed Charles Wurth as acting executive director of the Institute Wurth had been assistant director four years and business manager of the Institute before that The community congratulates Wurth on his new assignment and wishes him well And it can give thanks that Dr Palmer was a man of foresight whose planning will help the Institute adjust more readily in the wake of his loss AS A RACE the Negroes are a religious people but religion in has concerned itself lately too Great Mason City Raid intaglio print by Warrington Colescott Cause for A pplause A Unique American Prinlniakcr Looks at Dillingcr There was cause for optimism on Wichita's economic front this week Lear Jet Corn announced plans Friday to double its facilities Additions to both manufacturing and administrative areas will be made within the next year This will undoubtedly result in additional employment It is also heartening evidence of the forward course of our com-: newest aircraft manufacturing com- pany ing lives Negroes like many whites have grown wary of the "pie in the sky after we die" promises and look to their leaders and the nation's leaders for positive action now And why shouldn't they? Especially in view of the fact that this nation has spent over 1650-billion (enough money to build 65-million $10000 houses!) on armaments since the end of World War IL They look at this and wonder what good will it bring them? Indeed what good will it bring to the world? Yet there is hope for the Negro in America and there is hope for Democracy in the world It lies not in bombs and bullets as the politicians would have us believe but in the Dooleys" and "Dr Schweitzers" of the world in men who have "educated hearts" as well as educated minds DON BLAINE Haysville Ka Warrington print "The Groat Mason City Raid" is one of a series he has done on John Dillinger the American gangster The print won a purchase award at the Wichita Art Association's 1965 National Graphic Arts and Drawing Exhibition and is now a part of the Association's permanent collection (Another in the series of Dillinger" was also exhibited in this show) The print is intaglio with a great deal of manipulation of the plate It has strong brassy colors of reds oranges and yellows Museum of Art His one man show of serigraphs at Galerie Huit in Paris in 1952 was tha first exhibit in this medium in Paris Since 1957 his central interests have narrowed to the production of color prints in the intaglio process building complex linear and color statements using a unique combination of drypoint etching and serigraph techniques unlike any other graphic artist working today Colescott was born in Oakland Calif in 1921 and studied at the University of California Berkeley and in Paris and London He has held a Fulbright Grant and currently holds a Guggenheim Fellowship The community also received good news about roads this week this page) has called Colescott impeccable technician who is also a nit and a satirist" Colescott has exhibited and won awards at major juried shows across the country Some of the most important museums and public collections in this nation and abroad own prints Some of them are the Museum of Modem Art Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Public Library Brooklyn Museum National Gallery of Art in Washington Library of Congress Cincinnati Museum Los Angeles County Art Institute University of Chicago Milwaukee Art Center British Museum in London Victoria and Albert Museum in London Biblio-techqua National in Paris tho government of Norway and tha United States Information Service A new four-lane stretch of K-254 built at a cost of more than 84-million was opened to traffic Wednesday It runs northeast from Hydraulic south of 45th Street to Oliver near 61st It will speed through traffic around the city from the south and west to El Dorado Colescott is professor of art and art education at tha University of Wisconsin Ha has been active as a printmaker since 1948 when his first serigraph was exhibited at the San Francisco It also speeds up traffic to and from Kechi Wichita Heights Bel Aire and Park City John Canaday art critic of the New York Times (who has had an article elsewhere on All for One and One for All and All for Art Further it was reported that improvements on K-15 will be completed by mid-September This is providing a four-lane stretch from South Hydraulic to near downtown Wichita It will bypass the five-way intersection at South Hydraulic and East Kellogg speeding traffic into the heart of the city EDITOR'S NOTE: Cooperative galleries described here by John Canady New York Times art critic have been tried from time to time in Wichita CONGRATULATIONS were in order this week for several individuals and groups Wintrol Peace Corps volunteer from Wichita who founded a summer camp to encourage education among village children in Turkey and Wichita businessmen led by Duane Buckley 420 North Bluff who raised money to keep the camp going Quarters it can afford in the high-rent areas where the big galleries are concentrated will surely be very small and probably tucked away in shabby corners For tho same money the cooperative may rent adequate space off the main beat and sacrifice most of the audience it was created to attract But accepting one limitation or the other as irremediable how does the cooperative keep going at all? Hie practical organization of a typical cooperative can be synthesized from figures given by six of them: Members are elected by a three-quarter majority vote and member-ship is limited to 20 which gives each member a one-man show every two years and leaves time for several group shows in which all members are included There ia an initiation award-winning teen-age mem-pers of Wichita Junior Achievement who will be our delegation to the 1965 National Junior Achievers conference at Indiana University Aug 22-27 Thv Optimist Speech Club of Wichita honored by Optimist International for meeting 10 objectives including a community service project Other Editors Say Roadside Beauty By JOHN CANADAY (C) Mr Tart TIbh Mtwi Ilmira Forget the one artist in thousands who is lucky enough (and good enough) to get tied up with serious gallery Forget the several hundred every year who through despair or innocence resort to renting exhibition space in the vanity galleries Forget those thousands who accept the force of circumstances and make another life for themselves trying to be artists on the side Forget all these and you are still left with battalions of artists who whether they are any good or not are determined to make painting or sculpture their way of life and are frustrated because they have no way of getting their work before the public For these artists the cooperative gallery where a group organizes a showroom of its own is a hybrid between the commercial gallery and the come-one-come-aU-bnt forget yourcheckbook-goodbye-now world of tho vanity gallery As an ideal concept the cooperative is more than a practical proposition Ideally it is composed of a group of creative souls sympathetic to one another stimulated by association with one another and working shoulder to shoulder to bring serious art to public view But idealism alas ia never enough in a world where rent advertising and other vulgarities are prerequisite to the esthetic elevation of the public via the exhibition and sale -of works of art Here the cooperative runs into its first hurdle: it the money to buy the appurtenances of prestige Ftm Tfc Si bib Fwi-DUMUh A spokesman for the Associated General Contractors has told a House subcommittee that the AGC is ail for highway beautification but beauty should not be financed at the cost of new highways This position is similar to that of the Missouri Highway Commission and we can expect to hear it more and more from highway officials engineers and the construction not to mention the billboard lobby junkyard operators and others with a stake in highway ugliness tense moment at the Galeria Cooperative Nobody has a special stake in beauty except for the general public There is no money and no profit in it There is money in building highways and also in fitting them out with advertising signs junkpiles hot dog stands and a host of other commercial activities that would not even be there if the highway were not there Yet if one concedes that highways ought to be as attractive as they are smooth that they ought to be pathways to America the Profitable then it makes sense to pay for the beautification of highways out of bigh- way funds Controlling and removing the billboards and junkyards providing scenic turnoffs protecting historic sites and so on are as much a part of creating good highways as pouring concrete fee of $30 (although one cooperative now in organization has set a $100 figure) and dues are $25 a month The cooperative also draws a commission on any sales 20 per cent which ia less than the one-third or more that goes to a commercial gallery When membership is at its limit then the gallery operates on $12000 a year from dues plus an occasional initiation fee and commissions A director is paid from these funds and the group shows are advertised from them if possible but they are insufficient to cover advertising Hinting and mailing for the one-man shows When an artist's turn rolls around he has to cover publicity expenses if he wants publicity Of course he does but the gallery members have found that the absolute minimum runs to $200 One cooperative requires that the artist advertise his show as a means of keeping the gallery's name before the public The cooperative tries to keep dues low in order to avoid becoming vanity gallery by default But this means that it pay a staff So the artists have further obligations They spell the director now and then acting as gallery host and do odd jobs even floor-sweeping to cut down costs All maintenance such as painting remodeling and show installation is done by the artists Time given this way must be calculated as a form of expense for the members If it take time from the odd jobs by which artists so often support themselves it takes time from work in the studio which in a way is worse There are variations to this typical formula For instance one cooperative requires that the artist donate two works to bo selected by the director that may be gold for general funds or for the direct profit of the director if his salary is in arrears But taking the formula ps given just how good a deal is it? By the time he has his first show the artist has paid MOO in dues $30 for Initiation and at least $200 ia Incidental expenses not counting his manhour contribution Coll It 01000 If he can jell four or fivo pictures at harmony is difficult to maintain within a small group where esthetic theories division of labor and matters of cash can lead to conflict In spite of its solid idealistic front the cooperative is unusually vulnerable to disruption from within It ia not difficult to imagine how Peter Popart a member who has sold a number of pictures may resent a contract by which his commissions go to support a gallery where his fellow member Oliver Op has sold nothing at all especially since Peter thinks Oliver was lax in his floor-sweeping during his turn at the stint and even more especially because Peter loathes optical art and voted against Oliver for membership In the the prices an unknown con get his show might cover its cost leaving him with no other problem In life than how to find food clothing and shelter What he really hopes to get from the cooperative then Is the feeling that he Is legitimately and with dignity Involved In the serious practice of his profession This psychological value is the one that counts most for him and It count a lot One cooperative director says "Once an artist is accepted by the gallery he may continue to exhibit as long as he pleases No one Is dropped because of a change In style or techniques The gallery supports its artists as artists regardless of whether they are going through good or a bad period The latter may be the time when an artist most needs the support of All the cooperatives make a great point of their freedom to work as they please contrasting this first place even if a majority did vote him in One artist who tried to organize a cooperative had to abandon the project for reasons that summarize the personality difficulties that beset the ideal "The artist Is au Individualist" he writes "His work habits are Individually oriented He finds It hard to adjust to group effort He nurses his many rigid opinions and finds it difficult to compromise He wants people to boy his paintings bat finds It distasteful to engage In tha Basically hn regards ell other artists as competitors These are a few of the characteristics that exist to artists (me Included) which make the prospects of a cooperative gallery'e succeeding a long shot Th cooperatives I have known have ha an average half-life of one to three But even the most successful cooperative struggles under one major handicap inherent in the fulfillment of its purpose The cooperative ia vulnerable not only to disruption from within but even more discouragingly to deterioration from the top if a member really makea a hit he is likely to have an Invitation to go to a regular commercial gallery and un-leu he ia a saint he takes it Ironically the belter a cooperative does Its Job the less chance it has to profiL pjrom ita labors Tlic Wichita Beacon with "gallery pressures" a favorite term in reference to tha situation in commercial galleries by which at' Mirctllut Murdock Chairman of tha Board and Prasldant Britt Brown Vlca Pmidant and Sacratary John Colburn Editor and Publiahar least in the opinion of tha coopera-ealer tries to fives the deal Hot fen reproduced without pormlwMoa or tha nub-ilnhur Tho Branham Co Chlraio Maw York Detroit XaiMM CUT Bi Loala Dallaa na the artist the direction should take The cooperatives stress too the value to the artist of "vital association with other artists" But in operation this vital association sometimes mortally backfires Artists are people and by reputation somewhat more volatilithan the rest of us Sweet tional advert! puna rapmranUllvra Tha Wichita Baacon la number at Tha Aa- aocinbNl Brnaa It alao naoa Uieao wlra aerv-Unlum Free IntM-natlonal Tha New lea: York Ttmej and tha Chicam Trlbuna Me Tha AaaoniaM Praaa la ndualvely entitled to Un Wir publication of nawa credited to It and aiaa'to all looal naa puMlahad Strain 'The wine's lousy buPit was marvelous year foP corks'.